President Barack Obama delivered an “effective” State of the Union address that took an emotional turn at the end with the emphasis on gun violence, members of the media said after his speech on Tuesday. CBS’s Bob Schieffer called the speech much “better” than Obama’s inaugural address, which he said had come across as a “partisan lecture.” “I mean, the president’s inaugural address had sort of a partisan lecture tone about it,” Schieffer said after Obama wrapped. “This was a political speech, but it was well-written, it had a beginning, a middle and an end.”

The family of a U.S. agent killed in a 2011 ambush on a Mexican highway and another agent who survived the attack on Tuesday sued the government and nearly two-dozen other defendants. The federal lawsuit arises from the Feb. 15, 2011, attack on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila. They were attacked in their armored sport-utility vehicle near San Luis Potosi, Mexico, shortly after picking up some equipment from another agent. Zapata died and Avila was seriously wounded. … On Feb. 15, 2011, Zapata and Avila drove from Mexico City to San Luis Potosi to...

Cardinal Peter Turkson, a 64-year-old Ghanaian prelate, is the bookmaker's early favourite to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. He told The Daily Telegraph Tuesday that his biggest challenge, should he be elected, would be to maintain an orthodox Catholic doctrine while "at the same time knowing how to apply it so that you do not become irrelevant in a world that has continuous changes". Cardinal Turkson, who holds one of the most important jobs in the Roman Curia and has been repeatedly promoted by Pope Benedict, was quick to take a conservative line on gay marriage and other "alternative lifestyles". "We...

(CNSNews.com) – For the second time in two years, Washington, D.C., has been ranked the number one city for cheaters. According to AshleyMadison.com, a web site that bills itself as “the world’s leading married dating service for discreet encounters,” the nation’s capital was at the top of the list of America’s Least Faithful Cities with 34,157 sign-ups – more sign-ups per capita in 2012. “With enormous public attention paid to political cheating scandals this year, including the Gen. Petraeus affair, there was no doubt that Washington residents would be influenced. Living in DC it’s crucial to keep up appearances and...

HIGHLAND â€‚Â•â€‚ Debi Keeney says she last fired her gun 15 years ago, when she took shooting lessons. The gun was a gift from a friend but it mostly stayed in a side-table drawer, she said, gathering dust. Then, early Sunday morning, Keeney pulled the trigger again Â— this time, she said, to save her sisterÂ’s life. Â“IÂ’m very grateful that it fired this morning,Â” she said Sunday afternoon. Keeney, 55, said a man forced his way into her apartment in Highland, threw her to the floor and then put her sister, Donna Carlyle, 47, in a choke hold. He...

Sen. Marco Rubio may be giving the Republican response to the presidentÂ’s State of the Union address this evening and Sen. Rand Paul is giving the Tea Party response, but why wait until the president is done speaking? Sarah Palin is live tweeting her response and well she doesnÂ’t like it. Of course thatÂ’s no surprise, but she also created her own hashtag #sotUGottaBKiddingMe She began by countering the presidentÂ’s claim at the beginning of his speech that Â“there is much progress to report.Â” Sarah Palinâś” @SarahPalinUSA Obama: Â“There is much progress to report.Â” Oh really? Let's see what the...

Wow. I just read Dorner's manifesto in detail and was flabbergasted. What in the world is our modern society coming to? To be honest it reminded me (on reflection) very much of what I read years ago about the Columbine killers. There are honestly a growing group of people in this world who believe that if everything doesn't go their way - it's basically authorization to go wild and take muderous retribution...

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the United States needed to do more to fight climate change and told Congress he would do so by executive action if it failed to pursue a market-based system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago," Obama said, according to the text of his address provided by the White House.

Two decades ago, the Commandant of the Marine Corps declared that women serving in the infantry â€śwould destroy the Marine Corps.â€ť General Robert Barrow explained that, â€śin three warsâ€”World War II, Korea and Vietnamâ€”I found no place for women to be down in the ground combat element.â€ť He cited the 1950 fighting retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in temperatures of minus 20 degrees, with one Marine division pitted against eight Chinese divisions. Had women comprised 15 percent of his division, Barrow concluded, the Marines would have lost the battle.Â â€śThe very nature of women disqualifies them from doing it (killing...

Homeland prepares budget cuts, up to 1,000 furloughs at Secret Service • As many as 1,000 Secret Service agents, officers and workers could be furloughed as Homeland Security prepares for sequestration Bracing for the possibility of budget sequestration next month, the Homeland Security Department is making plans to furlough as many as 1,000 Secret Service agents, officers and others employees, officials say. Homeland Security issued its first agency-wide memorandum late last week preparing for sequestration, the sweeping automatic budget cuts set to take effect as early as March 1 under a prior deal between the White House and Congress to...

Greece has been hit by an unprecedented wave of metal thefts as its recession-hit people turn to crime. Train lines, bridges, cables and even cemeteries have all been targeted for scrap to feed a market driven by China and India. Police now arrest an average of four metal thieves every day, compared to a few cases every month before the crisis started in late 2009. The profile of the metal thief is also changing, authorities say, from gypsies and immigrants living on the margins of society to mainstream Greeks who have fallen on hard times. Roadside crash barriers, storm-drain covers,...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Of course I remember that. I remember everything. Somebody asked if I remember Obama saying in 2008 that he promised to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons. Of course I remember. I remember Obama promising to create all kinds of jobs. I remember Obama promising to end the racial strife. I remember all of these things. But nukes in North Korea? I think Obama is content to sit by and let the North Koreans have nuclear weapons, and the same thing with the Iranians. How could you conclude otherwise, folks? How could you conclude otherwise? I got an...

If you think a twenty-something ought to be tossed in federal prison for 35 years because he tried to download some musty academic journal articles without permission, you are a lot things, but a conservative is not one of them. You might be relieved to know that Aaron Swartz, one of the internet geniuses behind RSS and Reddit.com, will not be imprisoned for a third of a century. Unfortunately, that’s because the fragile young man hanged himself after the United States attorney prosecuting the case generously offered him the alternative of pleading guilty to a felony, paying a crippling fine...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday there was a story about David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post, who appeared on the Chris Matthews Sunday show, the syndicated Chris Matthews weekend talk show, and on that show David Ignatius was talking about the Misstatement of the Union speech tonight that Obama's gonna give. He predicted what Obama would talk about, about jobs and guns and immigration. And Ignatius then went on to say that he really hopes that Obama doesn't approach it as a zero-sum game and destroy Marco Rubio. Not in the speech tonight, but in the whole debate about...

This is the response Senator Casey is sending his constituents in regards to the "gun control debate." Notice he claims to be a "strong" supporter of the 2nd Amendment only to regurgitate the anti-2nd Amendment talking points he has been given and states he will support Dianne "I Hate Freedom" Feinstein's gun ban proposals. He even admits that mental health is at issue here, but seems to think gun bans will stop mental people from going nuts. Mental people don't buy their guns legally. These bans effect the millions who legally buy their guns and don't kill anyone. The main...

Is it possible for organized crime to exist without a corrupt government that is paid to look the other way? I think this is what is happening in Chicago as hundreds of people are killed in the streets while the city government wrings its hands blaming anything and anyone but themselves for the catastrophy of 500 needless deaths. Gangstas hire straw buyers to purchase guns outside of the Chicago city limits. When the straw buyers are caught, their sentences are plea bargained down to very low level misdemeaners allowing the straw buyers to keep buying guns for the gangstas. This...

A Tierrasanta teacher arrested for having a loaded gun on campus once told students that he had the gun to protect the school according to one student. Farb Middle School teacher Ned Walker, 41, was arrested Monday in the school's parking lot for having a .380 loaded semi-automatic handgun with a 7-round magazine as well as a 2.5 inch locking blade knife in his car. After the school's staff told the vice principal that Walker may be storing ammunition on campus, she contacted school police, according to district spokesperson Jack Brandais. “A search of the two cabinets revealed no ammunition...

The state’s quick adoption of FEMA’s advisory flood maps was sharply criticized Monday by Democratic state senators who said some residents will needlessly spend tens of thousands of dollars to raise their homes to standards that could be eased. Calling the requirements adopted last month by the Department of Environmental Protection "insane," Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) asked scientists at a hearing in Toms River if the maps are "scientifically valid." At least two scientists — who testified before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee — declined to answer, but Stewart Farrell, director of the Coastal Research Center of the Richard...

Above: Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), who has said “I have only one loyalty, and that’s to the immigrant community.”- by John HillStand With ArizonaWell it looks like crime does pay after all. At least 5 Democrats, including First Lady Michelle Obama, are bringing illegal aliens as guests to the State of the Union on Tuesday night - this despite a U.S. House rule requiring guests to provide their Social Security numbersBut a spokeswoman with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency declined to comment about whether the agency approves of this occurring at the Capitol, where Obama is set to give his annual...

Tune in Tuesday night to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. As the president speaks, he will be alert to the chorus of Hollywood stars, environmental activists, editorial writers and industry leaders who are pushing for him to make the biggest climate-change decision he can possibly make: Impose a carbon tax.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The poll is out. I find it curious, maybe even a little fascinating. "Americans Disapprove of Obama Policy on Nearly Every Issue -- According to a Gallup poll, 42% of Americans approve of Obama's gun policies while 54% disapprove. On taxes, 41% approve and 57% disapprove. On the economy, 39% approve and 60% disapprove. On 'the situation in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians,' 36% approve and 55% disapprove. And on the federal budget deficit, 31% approve and 65% disapprove. "The only area in which Obama gains the support of a majority is on...

SEVEN OAKS (CBSLA.com)Â Â—Â The cabin quadruple-murder suspect Christopher Dorner is believed to be holed up in is now fully engulfed in flames, according to CBS2â€˛s Carter Evans, who also reported that tear gas was fired into the house before the fire broke out.A shot was also fired around that time, and sources tell CBS2â€˛s Juan Fernandez that tracks were found leading to a horse corral, which may mean Dorner was able to escape.LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith Tuesday urged Dorner to turn himself in as a gun battle and barricade situation raged on in San Bernardino County.Â“Enough is enough. ItÂ’s time...

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Innovations in care delivery and President Obama´s signature health law are transforming American medicine for the better, the top U.S. health official said Tuesday. In wide-ranging remarks to a medical conference in Washington, D.C., Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius thanked physicians for tolerating the challenges of a changing U.S. healthcare system. "I understand that the change is not easy," Sebelius told members of the American Medical Association. "As we transition into an era of integrated, patient-centered care, it´s inevitable that there will be some growing pains.

Seven inmates, each of whom had an accomplice, partook in the felony practice that could net them 7 more years in jail, only this time, it will be an upstate prison. All 14 people who were involved in the Rikers Island money scam were arrested Tuesday and charged with third-degree grand larceny. Each faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty. They were working the system, if nothing else. Seven Rikers Island inmates conned the state into paying them $160,000 in unemployment benefits while they were living in the big house — a felony that may get them...

Colorado – -(Ammoland.com)- Mesa County Colorado has passed a far sweeping resolution concerning protecting and following and supporting the 2nd amendment of the United States. MESA COUNTY RESOLUTION NO. MCM 2013-009 A RESOLUTION TO PRESERVE AND DEFEND THE SECOND AMENDMENT OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MESA COUNTY, COLORADO WHEREAS, the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America states that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”; and WHEREAS, the...

Making progress!! Still lagging a bit behind the pace from last quarter, but we're getting there. Please keep those donations coming in, folks, so we can end this thing soon. If we can raise a minimum of 10% per week, we can be done within the next three weeks!! We can do this!! FR is funded solely by contributions made by like-minded liberty loving patriots who enjoy and use it and think it's a worthwhile endeavor to support. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in the defense Liberty. Free Republic stands for God and...

How’s this for a State of the Union primer: Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s closest adviser, attributed the gridlock and struggles of the last four years to a lack of patriotism among congressional Republicans. “The president has always reached out, he’s always looked for balanced solutions,” Jarrett said today on Morning Joe. “I think part of our frustration in the first four years is oftentimes seeing Republicans put their short term political interests ahead of what’s in the best interest of the country.” National Journal’s Ron Fournier reported that the White House was “stung by the coverage of the inaugural address”...

Just a day after receiving the Medal of Honor by the president of the United States, former Army staff sergeant Clinton Romesha has declined an invite by the first lady to be her guest at the State of the Union address Tuesday night. He said that after some soul searching he decided he’d rather spend the evening with friends from his former unit, his wife Tammy — with whom he celebrates a wedding anniversary Tuesday — and their families, CNN reports.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We talked yesterday about Chris Dorner, the renegade former cop in LA. They think he mighta gone to Mexico. They've also learned that he knows how to fly an airplane. So they may be droning the guy if they can find him. But you have to hear this. This is on CNN this morning on Newsroom with the anchorette Carol Costello, and she's talking to a satellite radio host about how some people are seeing Chris Dorner as a hero, as a vigilante hero, as a guy who was getting away with what needs to be gotten...

When President Obama discusses the economy in his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, he will be dealing with an area in which the American public gives him relatively low performance ratings. The same thing applies to immigration, energy policy, guns, and taxes. On all of those issues, more Americans disapprove than approve of the job Obama is doing, according to a new Gallup Poll. Gallup found that President Obama is heading into his fourth State of the Union address Tuesday night with an overall job approval rating of around 50 percent. But in eight of the nine specific...

President Barack Obama had lunch today with members of the press. But we likely won't find out what was discussed: The entire luncheon was off the record. "The anchors of all three broadcast evening newscasts -- NBC’s Brian Williams, ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’s Scott Pelley -- will be in attendance," Huffington Post reported today. Former aides to Democratic politicians who are now working as journalists were scheduled to be in attendance, too. "Some cable hosts will also be on hand, including MSNBC's Chris Matthews. George Stephanopoulos, co-host of ABC's 'Good Morning America,' is attending." The lunch is an annual...

After months of waiting, the letter finally arrived last week from Scott McQuarrie’s flood insurance company. Attached to it, he said, was a check for $76,000. That’s the money McQuarrie said he’s getting to rebuild his Union Beach home destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. It was less than the $125,000 estimate a contractor gave him to restore everything to the way it once was. And it was far less than the $250,000 limit he said he had on his flood insurance policy. McQuarrie, a 45-year-old backhoe operator and married father of one, was apoplectic today as he related his experience to...

News hit the Net yesterday afternoon that lightning had struck The Vatican twice, just hours after Pope after Pope Benedict XVI's sudden resignation. As a lightning photographer and weather photo hoax buster, I investigated to see if the photo was real. #PHOTO: Lightning strikes St Peter's dome at #Vatican on day the #Pope announced resignation, by Filippo Monteforte twitter.com/AFP/status/301...â€” Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 11, 2013 When the picture first started circulating on Facebook, Meteonetwork Puglia e Basilicata ONLUS (a division of Associazione MeteoNetwork Onlus) and commenting members of the Facebook page thought that the photo might be faked (loose internet...

Gun Control: Our future president in 2008 called for "a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the military. Should the "bitter-clingers" be worried? As Andrew Malcolm has noted on these pages, the Department of Homeland Security has been buying lots of ammo, enough by one calculation to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraqi War. Some have speculated about a link between the stockpiling between candidate Obama's off-prompter campaign remarks about a national security force and the stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a 'b') bullets. DHS has...

p>BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, right here on this program, we had a sound bite for you. It was Nancy Pelosi saying, "We don't have a spending problem." She said we have a budget deficit problem. I intended to make a point about this yesterday. As we do almost every day on this program, I had a call or I brought the subject up myself about my optimism, about how, at some point all of this is gonna bottom out and we're gonna rebound. And I've been honest with you about that optimism. I don't know what or...

Matt Damon will not be using a toilet until the entire world has access to clean water. Damon, co-founder of water.org, a site dedicated to raising awareness and funding for clean water throughout the world, staged a press conference today. He announced that he will not be going to the bathroom until sanitation was available to everyone to a room full of “journalists” with familiar faces like YouTube star ShayCarl and Winston from New Girl (Lamorne Morris).

“A Boy Scouts of America national board member, James Turley, who is also global chairman and CEO of the accounting firm Ernst & Young, recently said he “will work from within to seek a change” to overturn the BSA policy that bans gay scouts and leaders.” 1. But is Turley working on his own initiative, or has the White House prodded him with perks and favors? 2. Is it a coincidence that Turley came out swinging against the BSA’s century-old policy to ban gays from leadership and that he has such close affiliations with the pro-gay Obama administration? 3. Is...

A fire that broke out last week in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner could have been hot enough to melt the carbon-fiber reinforced plastic that makes up the plane’s shell, according to the results of tests the Federal Aviation Administration performed last year. In the FAA tests, which the agency performed at its site in Atlantic City a year after it certified the Dreamliner, the temperature of the battery fires reached as high as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The plane’s polymer skin melts at 649 degrees, according to its manufacturer, Victrex Energy of West Conshohocken, Pa. It also burns at high temperatures....

One of the deputies involved in a gun battle Tuesday afternoon with fugitive former police officer Christopher Dorner has died of his wounds, law enforcement sources told The Times. The San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to the sources. Another deputy was also wounded in the shootout near a cabin where Dorner was believed to be holed up in the snow-covered mountains near Big Bear. His condition was not immediately known. The afternoon gun battle in which hundreds of rounds were exchanged was part of a quickly...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: No, no, just depressed. I really am, and I probably shouldn't admit this. I mean, as the last surviving pope, I ought not even admit that, but I gotta be honest with you. Does anybody want to watch this tonight? Does anybody really want to watch? You know what this is gonna be tonight? This is gonna be the Misstatement of the Union. It's not the State of the Union. It's the Misstatement of the Union. And you know what we're gonna see? It's an absurd sight, folks, to sit there and watch our government stand and...

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all with the Sandy Hook murders of a classroom full of children, America experiences another new low: A man named Christopher Dorner murders (as of this writing) three innocent people in order to air personal grievances. And his grievances are given serious attention by the national media, not to mention left-wing websites. To better understand this, imagine the outcry if, let us say, a white student who was certain that he was denied admission to a prestigious university because of affirmative action, murdered a university official and the daughter of the dean of...

Senator Ted Cruz grilled Obama defense chief nominee Chuck Hagel over his controversial appearance on Al Jazeera, the Arab propaganda channel, during which the former Republican Senator had agreed with a viewer that the United States was a “bully” in global affairs. It has now been revealed that the government of Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, was a major contributor to the Atlantic Council when Hagel was its chairman. But Hagel also has an Al Jazeera connection through Georgetown University, where he is a professor, and which maintains a campus in Qatar.